Information AboutOresund |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ORESUND | |
| straits of denmark | |
| geography of copenhagen | |
| skåne | |
| scandinavia | |
| baltic sea | |
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> Oresund ( that separates the Danish island Zealand from the south Swedish Province Scania (''Skåne''). Oresund is one of the three Danish Straits that connect the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic Ocean (via Kattegat , Skagerrak , and the North Sea ), and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. The Oresund Bridge was inaugurated on July 1 , 2000 by Queen Margrethe II Of Denmark and King Carl XVI Gustav Of Sweden . Between Helsingborg and Helsingør ( Elsinore ) in the North of Oresund there are still ferries departing around the clock. HISTORY Political control of Oresund has been an important issue in Danish (and at Helsingborg on the east. Both fortresses are located where the strait is just 4 Kilometer s wide. SOUND DUES In and pay a toll to the Danish Crown (regardless if the cargo was ''en route'' to or from Denmark or not). Refusing to pay was not an option; if a ship refused to stop, cannons in both Elsinore and Helsingborg would open fire and sink it. In 1567 , the toll was changed into a tax on the cargo of the ship, thus providing three times more revenue. In order to avoid ships simply taking a different route, tolls were also collected at the two other Danish straits, the Great Belt and the Little Belt . The Sound Dues remained the most important source of income for the Danish Crown for several centuries, thus making Danish kings relatively independent of Denmark's Privy Council and Aristocracy . Since 1645 Swedish ships were relieved from the toll. After 1658 , when the Danish possessions on the Scandinavian peninsuala were ceded to Sweden, the toll could not be enforced as well as before. The Copenhagen Convention of 1857 abolished the dues and made all the Danish Straits an International Waterway free to all military and commercial shipping. NOTABLE ISLANDS
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